Duke's hat band

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  • Hello everyone,

    In El Dorado,Duke's cowboyhat has a hat band of silver work.
    In other his films,It's not recalled to have seen this.
    It might be unusual that he uses this.
    Is there any reasons why he used this though it doesn't whether
    this is his private poperty?
    Does anybody know why?

    Regards,
    H.sanada

    Sometimes kids ask me what a pro is. I just point to the Duke.
    ~Steve McQueen~

  • Was that the Duke's hat band or dude's? I remember Dude pulled one off his hat and said, "You could buy a lot of drinks with that" or something close to that and tossed it back to Duke...

    You can roll a turd in powdered sugar but that doesn’t make it a doughnut.

  • Hi erthomp143

    Dude? Dean Martin in Rio Bravo?
    may be he said what you mentiond.
    but,in Rio Bravo, Duke is the big guy with the battered hat.
    I made mention of Duke 's hat band in El Dorado as poster below .
    I heard this silver band was gifted to Duke by Gary Cooper.
    is it true?

    Regards ,
    H.sanada

  • I did a Google search for "Gary Cooper silver hatband John Wayne" and came up with the following -

    one of the results was from a book called They Did What? Things Famous People Have Done, by Bob Fenster, and there is a quote from the book that says

    "Cooper was big on sharing his hats. When John Wayne made True Grit, his silver hatband was one of Coop's."

    Another result in the same search was from a book called Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars: A Quiz Book, by Andrew J. Rausch. On page 45, the question asks

    "Cooper once presented his silver and leather hatband to filmmaker Henry Hathaway, who later directed a 1969 Western in which John Wayne wore it. In what film film was this?"

    I don't know if it's the same hat band, but there is something there. Two different books make reference to a silver hat band, from Gary Cooper to John Wayne (whether directly or indirectly through HH).

    clancy

  • clancy
    THanks for your gareat information.

    The bad feeling of my heart is wipe out considerably by your appropriate message.

    I was able to find the next description in a book The Official JW Refernce Book
    by Charles John Kieskalt.
    It is in P.140,Author"s Note: In True Grit,Wayne wears Gary Cooper"s silver and leather western hatband. This was a gift to Director Henry Hathaway from Cooper,a close friend.

    I don"t understand whether the hat used in True Grit is the same is it in El Dorado,
    but will not there be a very interesting relationship?
    Gary Cooper-Henry Hathaway-John Wayne.


    P.S. In Angel and the Badman(1947), Duke wears a hat with silver band,i fond.

    Regards,
    H.sanada

    Sometimes kids ask me what a pro is. I just point to the Duke.
    ~Steve McQueen~

  • Glad I could help. It was just an interesting quetion to me and I have found much information using the Google search.

    When you look at the picture of the poster or box of El Dorado, his hat in that picture definitely has a silver band, and I never noticed it in Angel and the BAdman - I'll have to watch that again.

    clancy

  • clancy,

    Great to see you again, we miss you a whole lot. Chester and I have spoken of you and really wondered where you've been.:wink_smile: Come again and don't be a stranger.

    Cheers :cool:



    Quote

    "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it"

    - John Wayne quote

  • Did the Duke generally use his own clothing and props in his movies? I read somewhere that he had the rifle that he used in Stagecoach modified and then used it in most if not all of his westerns. Was the same true for hats, pistols,etc.

  • I just got the box set of 'Tales Wells Fargo' (the early half hour black and white episodes) In the episode 'The Thin Rope' a young Chuck Connors guests, wearing what looks suspiciously like Duke's battered cavalry hat, right down to the nick in the crown. Could this have have been loaned to him by Duke as a 'good luck' gesture? Duke apparently acquired the hat because he wanted something as authentic as the one Ford wore. It was almost lost in a river crossing scene during the shooting of 'Rio Grande' and was obviously regarded by Duke as a kind of talisman.
    I read somewhere that the hat was finally ruined when he loaned it to Sammy Davis Jnr to wear in 'Sergeants Three'. Everybody kept pulling it down around his ears.